The Secret Of Courtney Dilaurentis
by Luvmuffin.xoxo
Summary: Something is lurking deep in the woods, something powerful, and vengeful. And it's coming back to haunt five girls.
1. Prologue

_Darkness._

_She felt a gush of wind as she rested peacefully on the forest's floor. Her fingers capturing the grass around her. The moon's reflected light shined on her as she closed her eyes, she felt Safe…_

"A_ria! You're supposed to be looking at the stars. Not closing your eyes." A voice from beside her uttered, breaking the silence the forest held over _them.

_"Guys this is boring!" Hanna groaned loudly._

_"Hanna, you have been complaining the entire time here." Spencer replied._

_"Because this is boring!" Hanna argued._

_"It's getting cold." Emily whined._

_"Are you serious?" Spencer rolled her eyes._

_"Hey guys? " Alison spoke. "Where's Courtney?"_

_Aria opens her eyes again, but something was different._

_She was sweating._

_Aria wiped her forehead, confused._

"_What's wrong, Aria?" _Courtney asked, her voice drifting away.

_Aria rolled over on her stomach, none of her other friends were there._

_Looking beside her she didn't see the person who spoke to her, knitting her eyebrows together she stood to her feet.__"Courtney?"__Aria called out, something inches away broke a tig._

_Aria's head snapped toward the sound, just more darkness._

_Aria began to walk over to the spot where she heard the sound, the only sound heard was her footsteps and her uneven breathing._

_Nothing._

_She didn't see anything._

_She sighed before turning back, walking over to the clearing she was resting at before.__"I won't let him hurt you."_ _Courtney's__ voice came back, it was ringing in her ears as if her friend was right beside her._

_Darting her eyes around Aria started to feel scared, she never liked being out here along.__"C-Courtney?" Aria shivered._

_"Come to me." The voice sounded so close, yet Aria couldn't see anything._

_Debating on whether to actually obey, Aria sucks in a deep breath. And she followed the voice._

_She followed it to a familiar small cabin she and her friends always hung out in.__"Courtney?" Aria yelled, "come on… Come out already." She demanded._

_She waited for a reply, but none came.__"Courtney seriously?" Aria says, she looked over her shoulders again hoping that just maybe someone would appear._

_"You know I hate going there." Aria whimpered._

_"Please?" The voice pleaded._

_Aria sighed, "I swear you owe me." Aria slowly walked up the steps. Stopping at the old door._

_The old thing creaked opened loudly, making Aria nervous.__"Okay. Courtney, I'm here." Aria held her arms as the wind started to pick up again._

_Suddenly she felt something push her inside, she fell to the ground._

_Now she was sitting on the old dirty floor of the cabin facing the door, it slowly started to close.__"No!" Aria screamed, getting up on her feet as fast as she could and managed to pull the door open._

_It fought against her strength but she quickly shot herself out the cabin._

_Running down the stairs of the cabin Aria fell again._

_She lifted herself from her stomach to see she had been lying in something wet._

"_What's wrong Aria?" The voice asked, "you don't want to play?"__Aria looked down at the wet puddle she fell in, and this was no normal puddle._

_Aria looked over to her hands as they were now covered in blood._

_Aria quickly rolled over onto her back to see something that reach for her neck._

...

"Ahh!"

Aria jolted up from her bed, her breathes heavy as she felt her own sweat rubbing up against her arms through her shirt.

"Aria!"

Her mother, Ella burst through her door. She immediately checked Aria's head, resting the back of her hand there. "Hey, listen to me." She held her daughter's hand, helping her stand up straight.

"Come on,give me twenty." Ella began to do jumping jacks as Aria slowly followed suit, she stopped a few times to let out a few sobs.

"Come on, ten. Eleven." Ella held onto Aria's hands encouraging her to continue. "Count with me." She added.

"Fourteen… Fifteen… Sixteen." Aria panted.

"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty." They both counted in unison.

Aria's breath finally caught up with her as she holds a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

"You're okay honey." Ella hugged her daughter. Aria weakly grabs onto her mother as she let out a shaky sigh.

Her father stood by the door, not sure of what to do. He watched his daughter with sad eyes. He was afraid for Aria. She was literally falling apart in front of him.

"You just had a nightmare okay?" Ella rested her hand on Aria's shoulder, squeezing slightly.

"I'm so tired." Aria mumbled, her eyes beginning to tear up again.

She had been having these problems for far too long, and both her parents were troubled with what to do with her.

Then, Aria's brother peeks through the door.

"Did she… Have another nightmare?" He asked, almost as if he was trying to be careful with his words.

Bryon nods quietly, "she's okay now. You can go back to bed."

Mike hesitates, but regardless he leaves.

In the past three hours both parents had been trying to coax Aria into sleeping again. She was being stubborn and tried to fight the sleep, but the medication fought harder and eventually she went down.

And now, Ella and Bryon were sitting at the kitchen table in silence.

"Bryon." Ella watched her husband finish another glass of alcohol.

"She's not ready." His eyes avoided hers, "I think we made a mistake."

"It's her first night back." Ella remarked, "she'll adjust."

"How do you know that?" Bryon asked. "Did you see her neck? She's doing it again."

"I saw that." Ella paused, "but she's our daughter." Ella let out a breathe, "it's not fair that she's suffering for this and those girls are fine."

"What if they're not fine?" Byron questioned, "what if they're suffering worse than Aria is?"

"Well they're home Bryon." Ella held a glass half full of alcohol. "If they can be home, then so can she."

"Ella…"

"Don't fight me on this." Ella stopped him, finishing off her drink she sat her glass down. Ella stood up, she left the kitchen but stopped by their staircase.

"She will be okay."

...

An idea i had for a short minute. There will be an "A" here but only for a short time because something else is gonna happen. This story is inspired by a game i played.


	2. Things Are Different

Change.

A lot of things can change.

One event can turn your life upside down.

One town can be your absolute nightmare.

One night in particular though, changed Aria Montgomery.

The night, six girls turned into five.

Everything has been a huge blur for Aria. After that night, she and the other four girls were traumatized and no one knew why. It didn't help when a certain fourteen year old went missing. Aria then became a sleep deprived monster, and her parents trying their best to help her only gave her medications to fall asleep. But Aria didn't want to sleep.

Nightmare after nightmare, they came at her almost every night after the incident. Aria's dad soon thought of an idea to take Aria out of town the year after. Aria felt grateful because oddly enough, she can't remember much of the trip they went to. She didn't care though, because when she was away, she could sleep.

Today she woke up from another nightmare. She tried skipping out on her meds after her first night of being back, and yet she still fell asleep.

The dream was just like every other. They all surrounded that same specific blonde. Courtney Dilaurentis. In the dream Courtney was speaking with her. Telling her some stupid fairy tale then suddenly things took a dark turn and Aria finds herself on her back being choked by her childhood friend. Aria surprisingly hadn't screamed her way out of the dream though, so luckily her parents didn't come rushing in to rock her to peace. She loved them though, she was just tired of that routine.

_Knock_.

Aria sat up as her door creaked opened. Her younger brother walks in with a smile. "Hey sis."

Aria cocked an eyebrow, "what?" Her voice groggily.

"We leave for school in like three minutes." He looks at his wrist watch. Aria shoots up from her bed, fumbling around to get an outfit she stepped on something. And not wanting to break whatever it was, Aria took too many steps back and fell to the ground.

"You seriously need to clean your room." Mike chuckled.

"Ugh." Aria groaned, "get out." She managed to find something to throw at him. He caught it and threw it right back before leaving her room. Aria looked around her room, it was a pure mess. It was like she had been gone forever. She pushed passed many clothes to find what she stepped on.

_A bracelet_.

She held it in her hand for a few seconds. This bracelet was made by one of the four other girls. Emily. Emily was the one who made everything just happy. She was sweet and so kind, Aria missed her.

Aria sat the bracelet on her dresser before she went to the bathroom to make herself more presentable.

"Please go away…"

Aria took off her shirt to see the red mark on her neck from the other night. Aria got dressed and meet her family in the kitchen.

"Oh, Aria." Her mother gave her a soft smile.

"You're going to school?" Her father asked, Aria nodded with slight confusion.

"Bryon." Ella says sternly.

Aria felt the weird tension between the two but honestly? Her exhaustion just blocked it out.

"Of course Aria's going today." Ella squeezed Aria's shoulders.

"But we-"

Ella interrupted. "Why do you look like you just woke up?"

Mike smirked, giving a playful shrug.

And to think Aria tried to make herself look pretty today.

…

Aria missed breakfast considering her brother woke her up only minutes before they actually had to leave. She just made herself a quick coffee and walked out the door with her brother.

"So… You missed a lot since you've been gone." Mike starts, he kept his eyes ahead of them.

Aria glanced at him, "oh yeah? Like what?"

"Your friends…" He trailed on, "They're not really friends anymore."

"What?" Aria chuckled, "we've been friends forever, that can't be true."

"But it is." He replied, "after Courtney…"

Aria frowned.

"They all seem to have their own thing going on now." He added.

"Oh." Aria replied in a mumble.

"The blonde one's stealing."

Aria knitted her eyebrows, "Alison?"

"No. Hanna."

Aria shook her head, "why does she need to steal?" She asked, "you're probably making this all up."

"It's the rumors at school." Mike commented, "so it's what everyone is saying. Not me."

"What other rumors are there?" Aria asked, now interested.

"That Alison skipped school last year to…" Mike stopped himself, "you know what? It doesn't matter." He sighed, "there just rumors."

Aria stayed silent for the rest of their walk.

Once they arrived at school Aria was already regretting it. She seen familiar faces, all but her friends. She sighed and made her way through the crowd. Her first class was English and the teacher was Ms. Sorenson.

After Aria settled she seen the faces she was looking for. The first girl that made her appearance was Spencer, she kept her eyes low to the ground and sat in the front row of the class. Aria quickly took her things to sit behind her old friend.

"Spencer?"

Spencer looked over her shoulder first, questioning herself if she had heard right. Once she saw someone from the corner of her eye she fully turned around to see Aria smiling.

"Hey. It's been like forever."

Spencer gave her a small smile, it was a sad smile though. "Yeah… No kidding." She replied.

"Sorry I didn't contact you earlier." Aria cleared her throat as Spencer stared at her desk. "How've you been?" Aria asked. Just then, Hanna and Emily came walking in with a few other students.

"Busy." Spencer let out a dry laugh, "but overall fine." She followed Aria's eyes who were on the other girls.

"And them?" Aria asked, both girls sat quite far from Aria and Spencer, Aria frowned. They didn't even notice her.

"I couldn't tell you." Spencer replied, "we're not really on speaking terms anymore."

Aria frowned, she had she really missed that much?

"Did you guys have a fight? Or something?" Aria would never think of she and her friends not being friends anymore. At least the younger Aria thought.

"No." Spencer flipped some of her hair behind her shoulder, exposing her face more. She looked more exhausted than Aria, and school was just beginning. "I don't know happened." She paused, "things just changed." She turned herself around in her seat.

Aria just nodded.

And soon, class started.

...

During lunch, Aria walked over to her locker to fetch something out. Aria had seen the other girls around but it felt way too weird to approach them. So she spend the day all to herself and it was literally boring!

"Aria?!"

Aria heard someone call her, Aria closed her locker to see two girls walking over.

"I thought I seen you around. I didn't know you were back."

Mona.

Aria met Mona a few times but not enough times to actually consider her a friend. Aria smiled anyway though, because why not make a new friend?

"Yeah. I came back a few days ago." Aria smiled.

"It's good to see you." Hanna replied.

"You too." Aria replied.

Then the three stand in awkward silence. There was so much Aria wanted to say, yet she found herself quiet.

"So." Mona cleared her throat, "Me and Hanna have to go. But it was good seeing you." She smiled before dragging Hanna away.

Aria wondered if the rumor about her was true. Deciding to think of that later, Aria heads toward the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was of course filled up, and just a little too loud for Aria's liking. There were a few tables outside and that's where Aria went to. She needed to avoid the loudness back there.

Upon coming outside there were a few people at each table. Everyone in their own conversations, Aria sighed. She looked around at all the tables to see Emily sitting alone, phone in hand. Aria let herself smile as she made her way over to Emily.

"Hi stranger." Aria grinned.

Emily immediately smiled, "hey yourself!" She stood up with Aria following. They hug for a quick second before pulling back to return to their seats.

"How've you been?" Emily asked. "I heard you went to Iceland?"

"I'm good!" Aria smiled, "and I did… It was… Fun."

Emily raised an eyebrow, "that's vague. You've been there a whole year, tell me you did something fun?"

Aria gulped, her dad told her they had all these fun adventures yet she didn't remember a single one. Aria found it strange but didn't question it. She does remember one thing though, she met someone.

"I met a boy." She smirked.

"Do tell." Emily started unwrapping her lunch.

"I don't kiss and tell." Aria winked playfully.

"Okay, keep your secrets." Emily giggled, "but are you going to the pep rally later today?"

"Aren't those things, like mandatory?" Aria asked, munching away at her lunch.

"A lot of students skipped them. It's surprisingly easy." Emily replied. "But you should come, Spencer's going to be giving a speech."

"Really?"

"She's the class president, she worked her butt off last year and I'm guessing her smarts actually got her in." Emily and Spencer were the last two out of the group that still hung out, but even that friendship melted away.

"I feel like I missed so much here." Aria admitted, "like I used to feel like I could tell them anything, everything."

"And now?"

"I feel like I don't even know them." Aria sighed, "I haven't seen Alison at all today and only talked to Spencer and Hanna once."

"Yeah, it's weird between us now." Emily shrugged, "I think it's because of what happened to Courtney..."

Aria frowned, "I miss her."

"Me too." Emily picked up her phone again, "Alison's still talking to me though. Mostly just texts."

"How is she?"

"She doesn't talk about feelings much."

"Has she ever?" Aria gave a sad smile, "now that I think about it… Has she ever been emotional around us?"

"No. She has a sister for that though." Emily bit the inside of her cheek, "had… She had a sister."

"I still dream about her." Aria confessed, "she was my favorite twin." Aria chuckled, "she was a lot nicer than Alison."

"Yeah." Emily grinned, "remember when we'd have secret sleepovers just to be with her and not Alison?"

Aria laughed, "yeah. Those were fun."

"It made me feel bad." Emily commented, "and when Alison did find out you guys left me to tell to her." She shook her head at the memories.

"It's not our fault. You were too gullible." Aria replied.

The two talked for the rest of lunch, catching up on whatever Aria's missed in the past year and soon lunch was over.

Aria thought after hanging out with Emily at lunch that maybe, just maybe things would look up for her.

Then the pep rally happened.

Aria made her way through the halls on her way to the gym, but something stops her. Someone stops her.

"Well if it isn't Aria Montgomery." Noel Kahn wrapped an arm around Aria's neck. "Felt like forever ago since I last saw you. Where'd you go? Disappear off with Courtney?" He and a few of his friends laughed. Aria rolled her eyes.

Courtney was well known in the town by now. It's not everyday someone goes missing in Rosewood.

"Piss off." Aria shoved Noel away, walking faster to the gym.

"Come on now Aria! Don't be like that."

She ignored him and kept walking, once she reached the gym she looked around the bleachers. All new faces and some old, she knew she couldn't have Emily as her only friend.The girl wasn't even at the bleachers.

She scanned the crowds of students finding their seats on the bleachers when she heard Mona again.

"Hey Aria!" Mona cupped her hands around her mouth so that her voice would project to the short girl.

Aria planted a smile on her face when seeing the two girls again.

She sat beside Hanna.

"Hey you two." Aria greeted.

"Hey." Hanna this time leaned into her to give Aria a side hug.

"Where'd you two go for lunch?" Aria asked.

"Shopping." Mona quickly dismissed. "So anyway, how's your day been. Being back and all?"

"Weird." Aria answered, "have any of you seen Alison?"

Hanna shook her head, "I think I saw her earlier. But there are a lot of blondes here so." She shrugged.

Before they could continue their conversation, Spencer makes her appearance in front of everyone. She waved.

"Hello Rosewood High." She waited for a response and a few students yelled back a hello. She gripped the microphone in her hand tighter.

"I know you all wish summer was just a little longer. I do too." She shrugged with a playful grin. "But now that school's back in session, in honor of our sport's team. We're having a little game in the next few days and hopefully we'll crush it."

"You know we will!" A random guy screams.

Spencer giggles, "you better bring that enthusiasm to the game." She pointed to the guy, clearing her throat she smiled again. "So, let's bring out a few of our friends and give out an early cheer for them. We have a few rookies so, they'll need it." The crowd chuckled a bit as the girls and guys on the sports team appeared from the locker rooms holding their hands high.

One of them being Emily.

"That's our girl." Aria clapped.

The team stood in a straight line and after a few chattering of the crowd Spencer spoke.

"Now, don't give all your love away just yet." Spencer turned around to face the room where the athletes came from. "Because we still have our cheerleaders right?" A few whistles and cheers hollered out. "We had to unfortunately say goodbye to a few old members but we have a new team! And that means, new hot babes." She joked as a few guys yelled in agreement.

When the cheerleader team made their appearance, Alison was last in line. She wore her signature smirk as another blond wrapped an arm around her neck.

"Well, there's Ali." Mona stated.

"She's a cheerleader?" Aria glanced toward the two, "why am I not surprised?"

Spencer then tries to speak but the sound from the speakers cut out, she taps on the microphone a few times. She looked back to the administrators who started to discuss something, two teachers leave the room to try and figure out what happened.

Then the lights cut off.

A few students screamed, not from fear but just to be loud.

"Okay everyone, do not panic!" Ms. Sorenson found a megaphone. "Please stay quiet as we figure o-"

_Crash_.

An erupt of screams filled the room.

Spencer's heart dropped.

"_Friends_."

Alison shivered, she tried to look around for the other girls and caught eyes from Emily, she wore the same shocked/terrified expression as Alison.

Hanna grabbed Aria's arm, her nails digging through the girl's skin. "Did you hear that?"

Aria frowned, "hear what?"

Even in the dark you could feel Hanna's fear.

"Students! Everyone stay seated! We don't want anyone falling" Another teacher yelled over the crowd. But of course students didn't listen, and started jumping off the bleachers, they held onto each other in the dark to move to the door.

"Is that…" someone gasped.

Even in the dark you could see Ms. Sorenson crushed under the ceilings of the gym. And a voice they never thought they'd hear again, sang in their ears.

"_We all play together._"


	3. For You

_Three years ago._

_Alison and Courtney Dilaurentis were very adventurous twins. They nearly did everything together. But they had their fair differences along with their similarities. Courtney was a lot more carefree than Alison was, she's usually the one with the plans. She didn't care about the dangers of sneaking out around midnight alone with her sister, in fact, the danger encouraged her._

_Alison was a thinker in a situation, she listed out all the possibilities of things going wrong. But she couldn't convince her sister to listen, so she went on these adventures because she loved Courtney._

_"Hurry up!" Courtney's voice yelled from up ahead._

_As boots slammed against the forest floor in front of her, Alison rolled her eyes but followed anyway. She had no idea why Courtney would enjoy being in the middle of the woods at night! To Alison, she was just asking for a death wish._

_"Where are we going?" Alison asked, catching up to her sister._

_Courtney smiled, "it's something I found the other day." She didn't bother to look back at her sister, she was too busy pushing overgrown brambles to clear their path. Sometimes it was like Courtney was living in another world, a better world where they were safe, at peace even. But the real world always checks in, knocking down whatever imaginary thoughts she had._

_Alison would check into Courtney's world_ _a__s they grew up, Alison started seeing the thrill. She seen what drives Courtney to do some very questionable things. Alison wanted to be like her. But Alison took far too many steps in the not-caring-department and begin to not care for the friends they had. That's what made her the outcast._

_Courtney led her to a dilapidated house that was being engulfed in Vines and other vegetation. She walked right up to the porch, turning her back to face her sister she threw her hands up with a grin. "Surprise!"_

_Alison cocked her eyebrow, she was woken up for this? She crossed her arms. "Is this it?"_

_Courtney's smile slowly faded, "you don't like it?"_

_"What is there to like? It's a stupid house." Alison turned on her heel to leave, but Courtney jumped off the porch to catch her._

_"Wait!" Courtney grabbed her arm, "don't you want to see what's inside?" Courtney turned around to the old house, then looking back to her sister._

_" No." Alison replied._

_"Come on, please?" Courtney begged._

_"Why don't you go in there yourself." Alison stared back at the building, it was giving her a creepy vibe._

_" Because." Courtney paused, "I want my big sister with me." They were technically onky sixteen minutes apart but Courtney always made Alison feel special when she brought out that card. It made Alison feel important._

_"Ugh. Fine" Alison groaned, "but I'm going in first." Courtney nodded._

_Alison walked up to the porch, glancing at her sister who gave her a thumbs up she turned around. She let her hand rest on the doorknob for a few seconds but she didn't have to turn the knob when the door slowly creaked open._

_Alison jumped back, startled._

_Courtney then stood behind her, "well? Are you gonna go in?" Alison sighed before nodding._

_As she walked in the old abandoned house, her footsteps creaked against the wooden floor boards. She held her arms as a cool breeze swept across her. As she walked further into the house she heard something scatter across the room, snapping her neck to the sound she shivered._

_"Hello?" She called out, "anybody here?"_

_Courtney stood by the doorway, giving her sister a questioning look._

_" Hello."_

_A very unsettling alien voice replied, Alison froze where she was standing. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the living room she asked another question._

_"What's your name?"_

_"Name?" The voice drawn out the reply. Before Alison could repeat the question she heard a scratching sound coming from the staircase. She made her way over to the staircase and took a few steps up. On the wall letters were written out._

_"S-A-R-A" Alison read out, "Sara?" Alison traced the letters with her fingers, "well. Hi Sara! I'm Alison." Alison seen a figure now standing at the top of the staircase, just before she could talk again her sister came inside._

_"Ali?" Courtney called out, "who are you talking to?"_

_"I was just talking to-"_

_The door shut closed._

_Both girls stood still for a few seconds. But Alison dragged her sister back to the door. She opened it again to see the dark woods._

_"That was super creepy." Courtney giggled._

_"Yeah." Alison frowned, " it's getting late. We should come back when it's daytime."_

_Not wanting to argue, Courtney nodded in agreement._

_But as soon as Alison stepped a foot out the door something grabbed her gown, pulling her back with an extreme force. Courtney was then pushed back into another wall. Alison was now being drug up the stairs._

_"Courtney, run!" Alison yelled._

_Courtney got up on her feet again, she was not going to leave her sister behind._

_Courtney ran up the stairs to grab onto her sisters arms, Alison held on with all her strength but the force was very strong. Looking up, Courtney sees an attic door open with a ladder sliding down._

_"Stop it!" Courtney yelled, she pulled Alison to her but it still wasn't enough. She planted her feet on a step and latched one of her arms around the railing of the staircase while using her free arm to hold onto her sister's matching nightgown. "Hey you bastard!" Courtney yelled. "If you don't let her go I'll get my friends to burn down this fucking house!"_

_Almost immediately Alison was let go, but that sent both girls falling down a few steps._

_Scrambling to get up on their feet they both bolted out the door and They ran as fast as their feet would take them._

...

Present Day

School surprisingly went on as usual. Only a few days closed off considering one of the staff members was crushed to death and some work needed to be done to the gym's ceiling. Everyone seemed okay, apart from their teacher dying everything was pretty much the same. Which bothered Aria.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Fitz, your new English teacher."

Mr. Fitz was young, and quite handsome to many students.

"I know you all are probably still mourning over the loss of Ms. Sorenson, and for that I send you all my deepest condolences." Mr. Fitz placed a hand over his heart, " I heard she was an amazing teacher."

"Can't believe they got another teacher so fast." Emily whispered to Hanna.

Hanna scoffed, "she wasn't that great." Hanna swirled her pencil around on her desk, Emily looked at her with a little shock.

"She just died. Show respect." Emily turned back to the teacher as he begun class.

"I will refuse." Hanna replied, "she was a bitch to me and that's why I'd skipped her class."

"Maybe she was being a bitch because you skipped her class." Emily remarked with a grin, Hanna smiled back. It felt nice talking to Emily again. But there was something on both of the girl's minds, something that just can't be kept to themselves.

Aria on the other hand sat across the room with Spencer, she kept her eyes on the window. Everything felt so weird now, Aria was surprised when none of the girls reached out to her to talk about what they heard. She knows for a fact that she wasn't crazy… Hanna heard it too, but why hasn't she said anything about it?

Aria's eyes then focused on a butterfly that flew passed the window, it kept flying back and forth. She looked back down to her desk to doodle on her arm, then she heard a constant tapping at the window. At first she ignored it until that tapping wasn't just a tap anymore.

It sounded like something was banging on the window, once Aria's eyes landed on the window… There was nothing.

Aria furrowed her eyebrows, her eyes glued to the window. She saw something in the distance, a figure standing far away just… Looking at her. Aria sat straight up in her seat, the figure wasn't moving.

"_Friend_."

She sucked in a breath.

"Hey?"

Aria jumped again as Mr. Fitz was standing beside her desk.

"You okay?" He asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I… Yeah… Fine." She stared down at her desk.

Spencer shared a look with Emily and Hanna across the room. Once Mr. Fitz walked over back to the board Spencer whispered.

"Hey, what was that about?" She asked.

"I'm just really exhausted. I think I'm becoming delusional." Aria wiped her face, she sighed.

Spencer nodded, not really sure of what to say. She turned herself around again, feeling uneasy.

Class continued and Aria started to doze off, she nearly fell out of her seat after the bell rung. As the other students were heading out the door, Aria was slowly packing her things away.

"Hey, what's your name?" Mr. Fitz walked over to her desk. She stood up, slinging her bag around her shoulder.

"Aria." She answered.

"I see that you're kind of distracted."

Aria let out a dry laugh, "yeah sorry. Just tired." She tried to walk past him but he stopped her.

"If this is about Ms. Sorenson, I'm here if you need someone to talk to." Aria stared at the ground, she nodded. " Death happens. It can affect a lot of people." He added, " just know you're not alone, okay?"

Aria met eyes with him, she bit the inside of her cheek.

"Thanks." Aria then pushed past him.

...

Later around lunch time the girls found themselves slowly easing into schedule. It's like the voice they all heard never affected them. At least that's what Alison thought.

She was sitting at a table with a bunch of girls from the cheerleader team and a few athlete boys. It was a total cliche that she was considered one of the 'popular' kids at school. But maybe it was the fact that her sister has been missing for nearly two years now, but hey, Alison believes it's her charm that draws people to her.

Without her sister Alison didn't have anyone she was close to. Sometimes she confides in Emily but even then she has this wall between them. Surprisingly, it was easier to make friends once her sister was gone, maybe it was because Alison wouldn't actually put her emotions in a friendship. She only had friends to not feel so alone.

Which was funny because she still felt alone.

But when she looked over at Hanna, Emily, Spencer and Aria she felt a little heartache. They may have been closer to her sister, but when she sees them, she also sees her sister. They were her only connection to Courtney.

"Ali?"

Alison snapped her head back to her table, one of the first girls who befriended Alison was Charlotte. Charlotte was now a senior and pretty much the only person Alison actually hangs out with outside of school.

"You, okay?" Charlotte asked, munching away at her lunch. Alison glanced over to her old friends again, she stood up.

"Yeah but um." She paused, "I have to go do something." And with that she walked over to another table where Spencer was sitting at.

"Spence." Alison called.

Spencer looked up from the book she was reading, she eyed Alison curiously. The two haven't talked in what felt like forever, it felt weird just seeing her stand in front of Spencer right now. "Yeah?" Spencer raised an eyebrow.

"Can I talk to you?" Alison glanced at the other people at her table, "alone..." Her voice trailed.

Spencer sighed, fully closing her book she stood up. "Sure."

Alison led Spencer in the courtyard where the other girls were sitting at different tables. She walked over to Emily who sat by her teammates.

"Em?" Alison's called, she took nervous breaths which made Spencer stare at her, confused.

Emily whipped her head around to see the two girls standing in front of her, she gave them a smile. "What's up?"

Spencer shrugged.

"Can we talk to you? You know… Alone." Alison fiddled around with the hem of her shirt. Emily nodded, and after that Alison gathered everyone including Aria and Hanna in the bathroom, she pushed open each of the doors to ensure that they were alone.

"What is this about?" Hanna asked, "Mona and I were kind of busy."

"with what? Discussing what store you'll rob next?" Alison spat out, after checking the doors she leaned against the wall.

Hanna grinned, "yeah. I'm not doing this." She motioned to the other girls and turned her back.

"Hanna, wait." Alison pushed her off the wall to grab Hanna's arm. "I was just joking." She let go of Hanna, "I need to talk to all of you."

"About?" Spencer asked.

"The pep rally."

The other girls immediately looked away, staring at anything other than Alison.

"So you all heard it too… Right?" Alison's eyes darted between the other four girls.

"I need to head back to lunch, I was going to help someone with-" Spencer was interrupted by Alison, the blonde pushed past the girls to block the door.

"No!" Alison pushed Spencer back. "You guys can't pretend you didn't hear it."

"Why not?" Hanna asked.

Alison knitted her eyebrows and frowned, "what do you mean?"

"Why can't we pretend that everything is okay? I'm definitely not in the mood to deal with fucking _Sara_ again." Hanna replied, she leaned against one of the bathroom stalls.

Alison shook her head, "has pretending so far helped you?" Her eyes suddenly filled with tears, "because pretending only gave me nightmares."

Aria bit her lip. Was it weird that she felt somewhat relieved to hear Ali say that? " Well, what do you want us to say? That we heard it too?"

"Yes!" Alison blinked her eyes rapidly to force the tears away.

"Then what? We have a party?" Spencer scoffed, "can you please get out of the way?" Spencer tried to push the door open but Alison gripped Spencer's shirt.

"Was she not your friend?" Alison asked.

Spencer placed her hands on Alison's arms, "what?"

"It was Courtney!" Alison's voice echoed as she yelled, " that was her out there and neither of you care!"

" We didn't say that." Emily stepped forward.

" That's because you guys aren't saying anything." Alison replied.

"Fine, we heard it." Hanna motioned toward Aira, " we heard it alright? Are you happy?"

Alison shook her head, "I want you guys to come with me. To the woods."

" Are you serious?" Spencer pushed Alison back. " Hell no."

" I'm with Spencer on this one." Hanna said, "not to mention what happened last time or anything… But that ruined that place for me."

" Please?" Alison pleaded, "we can just go after school. It'll still be early and we don't have to go inside the house-"

" Um, no offense but." Emily paused, " that sounds like a really bad idea."

"That's because it is." Spencer rolled her eyes, "you can go there all you want. But count me out." Before Spencer could leave, Alison spoke.

"Courtney would've wanted us to go."

Spencer paused in front of the door, her hand pressing against it.

"We went there so many times." Alison sighed, "that was her favorite place." Their first time visiting the woods wasn't the best experience, but something made Courtney _want_ to go back, and Alison couldn't let her sister go alone.

"She would've wanted a lot of things." Spencer mumbled.

"Please?" Alison repeated. " Just for me. We wouldn't have to stay long." Alison begged.

Spencer glanced toward the other girls before her eyes landed on Alison.

"I'll think about it." Spencer left the bathroom, leaving the other girls in their thoughts. Silence filled the bathroom as Alison waited for the other girl's answers.

"I don't think I can do it." Hanna muttered.

" Please?" Alison's eyes tearing up yet again, " this would mean a lot to me." Her voice cracking, "I know we stopped talking after a while… But I just want to feel like the old days again."

" I'll be there." Emily replied, crossing her arms. " But I have practice so I can only make it around six, probably."

"Thank you." Alison smiled.

" Uh… I guess you can count me in." Aria replied.

Alison nodded at her response, keeping that same smile on her face.

Hanna groaned, "I'll go too. But as soon as I hear one noise in that house I'm leaving."

Alison nodded, "Thank you Han."

The three girls eyed each other before leaving the bathroom.

Alison wiped her tears away as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

"I did this for you." She whispered.


	4. The Visit

"I can't believe I'm doing this!"

Hanna mumbled. She followed Aria and Spencer deeper into the woods, a place that haunts her to this day. The afternoon sky lit up the forest, but all three girls knew that it's going to get dark soon.

"Me either." Spencer replied, she walked ahead of the other two girls, she wanted to get this mess over with soon so that she doesn't have to feel like such an asshole for not coming.

"Is it weird that I don't remember much of what happened the last time we were here?" Aria suddenly asked, she thought she'd receive a weird look from either girls but she got the opposite.

"No! I wish I could forget." Hanna said, "this is the last thing I'm doing for Alison, I swear." Hanna experienced trauma differently than the other girls. Something truly haunting can strike the girls, making them not want to eat, but all Hanna could do was eat.

She ate even when she felt full. It was like she couldn't stop. She wanted so desperately to forget that she stuffed herself silly.

She's been getting better at that though. Mona had helped her find a new way to distract her mind. And yeah, maybe shoplifting was a really stupid way of distracting herself but it worked. It worked and that's all Hanna cared about.

"Yeah… I'd rather forget." Spencer added, as she led the girls to the house she thought about the times they spent in there. How naive they had been about _Sara_.

Spencer didn't really have a coping mechanism. Apart from reading every book she could get her hands on she had nothing. She'd just stay in her room reading until she had headaches, and maybe sometimes she'd go downstairs to get something in her stomach.

Her mom and sister have been acting weird as well. They'd be talking in hushed tones, and once Spencer makes her presence known they stop, plus Spencer's sister has been a little on edge when she's around Spencer. Spencer tries to confront them but then the table turns on her and apparently she's just being 'paranoid'.

"I'm already getting flashbacks." Hanna whined, "I mean, why are we even doing this?" She asked, "when has Ali done anything for us?"

"Don't you feel bad?" Aria asked in return, "she lost her sister."

"I don't want to hang around someone just because I feel bad." Spencer replied, "I'm doing this one thing to be nice but after this I'm back to the books." She paused, "it's the only thing that makes me feel normal anymore."

Before Hanna or Aria could reply they seen Emily and Alison already sitting down in a clearing they used to hang out in. Spencer stopped in front of them, crossing her arms. "So, what exactly are we doing?"

Alison smiled at her old friends, "follow me."

Once she stood up, she practically ran away from the other girls, they hesitantly followed her. They all came to a stop after seeing Alison standing in the porch of the old house.

"And this is where it begins." Hanna muttered under her breath.

"Okay, I know I said you guys don't have to come inside the house but-" Spencer immediately cuts the blonde off.

"And we're not doing it." She held a sharp gaze on Alison, the blonde sighed.

"Fine." Alison rolled her eyes, she and Spencer ha always been at each other's throats. Alison wondered how Courtney would get along with her so easily. "Can you just… Stand here then?" She motioned to the porch, Spencer glanced at the other girls, they were all looking back to her for an answer.

"Sure." Spencer stepped first on the porch, with the others following.

Alison gave them a half smile. "Thank you." She says in a whisper. She turns her back to the girls and opens the door, a loud squeak filled their ears. She takes a few steps in, the other girls share a worried look between themselves.

"Ali, wait." Emily pushed past Hanna and Aria, "I'll go in with you." Emily stood directly outside the door, her hands already shaking with fear. Spencer grabs her arm, giving her a look that says, 'Are you sure?' Emily nods quietly, she turns back to Alison who held her hand out for Emily to take.

Once their hands connected they both walked further into the houses. The girls watched them from the outside, Hanna was practically clinging to Spencer as Aria was probably the calmest of them all. She wasn't sure if she should've felt more terrified then she was, but she would rather feel confused than scared.

"Hello?" Alison called out, "We're here!"

Emily held tighter to Alison's hand, she was already regretting coming inside.

"Come on, I brought our friends." Alison lifts up her hand that held Emily's, she leads her to the staircase she was once dragged up from. "Why were you at the Pep Rally?" She asked. No answer.

Emily let out a shaky breath, Alison hissed understand her breath. "I brought them here. So where are you?"

Emily glanced back to the other girls who Huddle's together, she gave them a nervous smile.

"Don't be a bitch." As soon as the last word left Alison's mouth, the front door slams shut. Emily immediately bolted toward the door and she tried opening it but failed. The others on the outside were trying to push the door open or break it, but it didn't budge.

Alison crossed her arms, unamused.

"This isn't funny." She turned back to the staircase. She looked back to Emily who desperately tried to free herself, "I said this isn't funny!" Alison raised her voice, "open the door." She ordered, a few seconds go by and now Emily was fully in tears banging away at the door.

"I said open the door. Now!" Alison stomped her foot, "this isn't how you treat friends."

Suddenly the door flies open, pushing Emily to the ground. The other girls immediately help to pick her up, she clung to Spencer.

Alison walked over to the girls.

Hanna glares at her, "what the actual fuck?!"

"I'm so-" Alison couldn't get the words out as Spencer and Hanna spat out their words to her.

"Do you want us to gond too?" Spencer asked, she helped Emily stand up, "this is the last time I'm ever coming back here."

"Wait, guys she just misunderstood-"

"No!" Hanna spat out, "I'm not gonna be the next snack for _Sara_."

"But Courtney-"

"Ali." Spencer called, "Courtney is gone. So please, just stop this."

"No… You guys seen it she's the-"

"I don't have time for this." Hanna wiped her face, "I don't want to go through this shit again." She turned her back on the girls, she started to walk back the way they came.

"I think it's best if we all go." Spencer also leaves with Emily.

Aria stands awkwardly, she looks back at the girls who were now leaving them and back to Alison.

Alison held her head down.

Aria was going to say something, but she stops herself and follows the others.

Alison looks up in time to see them all leave.

She turns back to the house.

"How could you do that?" She asked, "they came for you and y-you scared them." She paused, she stares at the old house. She let a single tear drop fall down her cheek.

"I thought they were your friends!" Alison bit her bottom lip, "I did this for you and that's how you treat them?"

A long silence falls over Alison, she turns to leave the house when the familiar ghostly voice comes back.

"_Friends_?"

Alison smiled through her tears, she glanced back at the house. "Yeah. They're your friends." She wiped her tears away, "and you can't treat your friends that way… Or they won't be your friends anymore."

Another silence draws out. Alison takes in a breath as it replied again.

"_I'm sorry_."

"You don't have to apologise to me." Alison responded, she turned her back to the house.

"_Stay_…"

Alison sighed, "not until you make things right." A silence was the only response, Alison crossed her arms.

"You need to promise me something."

...

The few weeks the girls were completely avoiding each other. Spencer walked Emily home as Hanna and Aria went off on their own. After that, the next morning the girls were silent. Their old memories flooding back as if they could ever stop thinking about it.

Emily probably took it the hardest.

She had already experienced the hell that thing caused her. She cried herself to sleep and she was sure her mother heard her, but Emily could never open up. Plus, how was she going to explain to her mother that a ghost locked her in a house in the middle of the woods? A place where they saw their missing friend last? Even if her mother believed her she knew she'd just get scowled for being stupid enough to go back there.

"Ms. Fields! Come here."

Emily walked over to her swimming coach, she wiped the pool water from her face as she snatched away her goggles. She let out a sigh as the woman spoke to her.

"Is something wrong? You're completely off your game."

Emily avoided making eye contact, "sorry. I'm just tired." She wasn't technically lying, she was indeed tired. But she was tired of something else, _someone_ else. "I had a hard night." She mumbled. The coach knew something was wrong, but deciding not to push it she placed her hand on Emily's shoulder.

"Well, try to get some good rest tonight." She walked past Emily as a few other teammates of hers followed the coach out the pool room.

Emily made her way to her locker, she leaned her forehead against it, she was glad today was over. She just wanted to go home and sleep. Unlike Aria, Sleep had blocked away all of Emily's problems. She'd occasionally have a nightmare, but she got over those pretty quickly.

She turned over to lean her back on the locker when someone pressed up against her.

"Ah!" She shut her eyes and pushed the body away.

"Woah! Babe!"

Ben held up his hands in defense. Ben is Emily's boyfriend, they've been dating for a few months now and the only people who knew of this was Ben's friends and Emily's teammates. Emily wanted to keep their relationship a little secret, she felt bad enough that she dated this guy and doesn't actually like him and the thought of people continuously praising their relationship made her feel even guiltier.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Emily held a hand over her chest, letting out a shaky breath.

"Sorry!" He chuckled, "just wanted to see my girl."

Ben presses against Emily again, she was in no mood to do this now, technically she was never in the mood with Ben. She knew at some point she'd have to give herself up but she didn't think it'd be in the middle of the girl's locker room.

She pushes him softly, "Ben, not right now." She kept her head down to avoid a kiss.

"Don't be shy." He smirked, he planted a few wet kisses on her neck. She uses more force this time to push him off but he stays persistent.

"Ben… Stop." Emily mumbled under her breath, Ben stops momentarily to look her in the eyes.

"I won't hurt you." He grinned, he lifted her chin to kiss her on the mouth. She cuts the kiss off and turns her head to where he kissed her on the cheek.

"Emily." Ben sighed, "people already think we do it. So why not just let it happen?"

Emily frowned, "people? Who are these people? Are they your friends?" Emily shot out her questions, "did you tell people we-"

"So what?" Ben takes Emily's hands and roughly holds them against the locker. "Let's just play." He grinned.

Emily tries to get her hands out of his grip but he was actually pretty strong, Emily whimpered as he held them tighter, his kisses reaching all over her face.

"Ben, I said stop!" Emily commands as a locker shuts around the corner. The couple look over to the direction, Ben glanced to Emily.

"Is someone in here?"

"I-i think one of my teammates stayed behind." Emily lies, hoping that someone was there.

Ben lets her go and walks around the corner to see nothing, puzzled he comes back to Emily who held her wrist.

"Nobody's there." He stated, shaking his head he started to kiss Emily again. But this time someone cut in.

"Emily..."

Emily's newest teammate Maya stood by the door of the locker room, she watched the couple separate.

"I've been waiting forever!"

Emily eyed her confusingly, Maya winks as Ben glanced toward Emily. Emily then nods as if she just remembered, "oh yeah I forgot." She turns to Ben, "I said I'd help Maya with some uh…" She turns back to Maya, hoping to get an answer.

"Some girl stuff!" Maya shouted.

Emily bit her lip, she turned back to Ben who cocked an eyebrow.

"What kind of girl stuff?"

Emily looks down at the floor as Maya replies. "Private issues, now come on Emily." She held her hand out for Emily, Emily hesitates as Ben crosses his arms.

Regardless though she took Maya's hand and the two were leaving the locker room.

"Thanks for the save back there." Emily smirked.

"No problem." Maya replied, "It seemed like he was giving you issues."

"So that was you with the locker?" Emily asked.

Maya knitted her eyebrows, "what do you mean?"

Emily shakes her head, "nevermind." She planted another smile on her face, "I'm ready to go home."

...

Aria had felt weird after that visit. She wasn't sleeping well but that's never a shock.That thing that she felt back in the house, it seemed so familiar to her. Of course she was then scared shitless when it shut Emily and Alison inside. She vaguely remembers _Sara_. Sara had always been their 'imaginary friend', oh so they thought. But she doesn't know what happened, so many memories were mashed with her terrifying nightmares that she couldn't tell what was real or not. All she knew was, Sara was definitely back and it wasn't good.

She wasn't sure why… Or how Alison seemed so nice to it. There were too many questions blocking Aria's mind.

She came home exhausted like usual, she plotted herself on the couch, her eyes were beginning to close as exhaustion took over her.

"Aria?"

Her mother walked in, she held a bag in her hand.

Aria sat up, "yes?"

"I thought you'd appreciate some new clothes."

Aria stands up to take the bag, "okay…?" She uttered.

"Go take those up to your room, how about you join us for a bit of family time? You've been cooped up in your room these past few days." Ella watched her daughter nod and walk up toward her room. As her daughter disappears in her room she walks over to another bag that was sitting next to an already full garbage can.

She groaned, "I swear Mike can never do as I say." She takes the bag and opens it to see the dirty clothes Aria had been wearing that night.

She could never find the courage to throw them away, it was the last outfit Aria worn before the terror consumed her. Ella couldn't blame her though, she may not know what exactly happened but she knew her baby was suffering.

But so was she.

Ella held the dark red shirt close to her chest, she didn't bother to wash it either. It had dirt stains over it, matching the jeans that was practically a different color than it was supposed to be. Ella dropped the outfit in the trash, she also took out the trash can to get rid of the clothes.

Aria on the other hand was basically trying to stay awake as she put all her new clothes away in her closet. Even just standing up she felt herself falling asleep.

After putting her new clothes away she plopped down on her bed, she immediately felt something crush underneath her. She rolled over to her stomach and shoved an arm under the covers, she then pulls out a bracelet, not like the one before but a different one.

A hospital bracelet.

Aria flipped it to see her name printed on it, it was ripped in a way that she could only see her name and the time she was born and her age.

**Montgomery, Aria M**

_DOB: 07/ 22/1994 13 F_

Aria slowly got up from her bed, she held the bracelet in her hand, just before she walked out of her room she noticed her window was opened. She walked over to her window, she peeked her head out to see nothing. She shrugged it off and slid the window down, she was ready to ask about the bracelet anyway.

"Mom!" Just as she walked toward her mother she paused.

Ella turns to see her with a remote in her hands. "Did you know this boy?" She asked.

On the news was a boy named Ben Coogan. A picture of him smiling with his other teammates plastered on TV.

Aria shook her head, she had seen him around but she was never his friend.

"He was from your school." Ella added, she turned up the volume as the newscaster spoke.

_"This is the second death at Rosewood High after a teacher was crushed to death in the gymnasium. Ben Coogan was a student at Rosewood High, he was found in the pool of the school dead."_

Aria sucked in a breath, she suddenly grew more nervous. She crushed the hospital bracelet in her hand as the news continued. Ella took a worried glance at her daughter, she quickly turns off the TV.

"Hey, were you going to ask me something?"

Aria stares at the television, she felt frozen. It was strange considering she didn't know much of about that boy, or maybe it was the fact that it was another death surrounding her.

Aria cleared her throat as her mother watched her with concern.

"Oh… Uh, no. No." Aria turned her head to the kitchen, "I was just gonna ask what was for dinner." She mumbled.

Ella sighed, "probably takeout. We're having a family movie night remember?"

Aria nodded, "right… Right." She awkwardly scratched the back of her neck, her mother placed a firm touch on Aria's shoulder, she gave her a half smile before making her way to her own room.

Aria looked back over to the television again, she looked down to her hand with the bracelet. Taking a sigh she shoved the bracelet in her pocket, she rested her hand over the pocket.

A lot of things weren't making serious.

...

By that night everyone at school had heard of Ben. Spencer had seen Emily and Ben together and out of curiosity asked Emily about them. It was weird though, Emily completely dismissed her question then stop replying to her texts. Spencer didn't take it to heart though, she just thought that Emily didn't want to open up to anyone right now, she knew her boundaries and stayed with them.

That night Spencer was in the living room, clicking mindlessly through channels with no interest in anything. She didn't really have anyone to talk to right now and at any other time she was fine with not having friends, they were a lot of work just to keep up with… Plus, all she needs to do is get her studies over with she'd leave this place. She'd leave Rosewood and make a new life somewhere else, maybe Chicago or California even.

As Spencer thought more of her future there was a series of quiet knocks at the door. She didn't hear it at first, it was almost too quiet. The short silence she heard after flipping through channels is when she heard it.

She hovered her finger over the remote, she turned her head a little to listen.

_Knock_.

Spencer turned down the volume of the television, she stood up to her feet, waiting.

_Knock, knock… Knock._

The knocking soon came in a rhythm, a certain rhythm Spencer could never forget. She tossed the remote on the couch and walked over to her door, she hovered a hand over the knob, the knocks suddenly stopped once she gripped the knob in her hand.

Spencer waited for a few seconds before opening the door.

No one was there.

Spencer bit the inside of her cheek, she turned her head toward every direction she could. Nobody was around. At first she thought maybe it was some stupid prank. But once she stepped a foot outside the door she felt something.

She looked down at the dark clothing.

She bent down to pick it up, it was folded messily. It was quite dirty as well.

Spencer held the clothing in front of her, taking it in.

She knew what it was, she knew who it belonged to.

It was her favorite hoodie. It was a simple gray color with the words "I'm cold" imprinted on the front of it. Her sister had gotten it for her on one of their many shopping trips. But Spencer wasn't the only one who liked this hoodie.

Courtney did as well.

Sometimes Spencer would go days without her favorite hoodie because the blonde would steal it from her, at first it annoyed Spencer but she got used to it.

But something was weird about this…

Courtney was wearing that hoodie the night she disappeared.

Spencer's hands were all shaky as she held the hoodie, she didn't know what to do, she didn't want to throw it away… This was practically the last thing she had of Courtney's, even though technically it belonged to her.

"Spencer?" Her sister's voice called out.

Spencer nearly threw the hoodie on the ground.

Spencer turned around to face her sister, she hid the hoodie behind her back.

"Y-yeah?" Spencer gave her sister a nervous smile.

"What are you doing?" Melissa asked.

Spencer shrugged."I was… Taking out the trash!"

"Yeah?"

Spencer cleared her throat, "so um… What are you doing up? I thought you'd be sleeping in early." Melissa had graduated and was going through her options for college and other things Spencer doesn't really know due to the sisters not talking like how they used to.

"I couldn't sleep." Melissa answered, "What are you doing up on a school night?"

"I thought I could use a late night." Spencer replied, "anyway I'm tired now so I'm going to go to bed." Spencer shoved the hoodie in her shirt, she closed the front and nearly ran past her sister.

Melissa watched her sister walk up the stairs with something in her shirt.

She hated how different things felt now.

She hated that she was _afraid_ of her younger sister.

...

The next day school was still present. But for the athletes things were put on a bit of a pause. They were being investigated for the death of Ben. And yeah, Emily was a complete wreck. During half the day of school she called her mom to go home, she said she was sick and her mother didn't question it, plus Pam didn't want her daughter going to school with all this death happening.

Pam didn't know of Emily and Ben, but she knew how death affected her daughter. And it wasn't pretty.

But Emily wasn't the only one on edge, Hanna had been in a paranoid mood all day. Some of the students who knew Ben were being taken out of classes to be interrogated, the first class period Emily was taken out of class. And once she came back she was in a worse state than before.

Hanna tried to find Emily after that, but she gave up around lunch. She did see Spencer and Aria, and they seemed haunted by something too. She had no idea where Alison had been and she was furious. In Hanna's mind, if she and the girls didn't follow Alison to that damn house again none of this would've been happening.

The first day Aria comes back their teacher dies, the first time they go back to the woods a student dies.

Hanna couldn't think straight, all she wanted to do was eat. So eating probably wouldn't solve a single thing but that's the only thing that made her feel better. As she sat at lunch she felt restricted.

Luckily for her lunch ended and she went on with the rest of her day. She hadn't seen Mona all day either and that was pretty much her only friend.

After school she texted Mona to meet up somewhere, anywhere to get her mind off this entire day. Mona didn't reply which left Hanna to go straight home after school.

She dropped her bag by the door once she came inside her house, she made her way to the kitchen to see a box resting on the island.

"Hanna, someone left something for you." Her mother had her back facing Hanna, she was washing the dishes. Hanna silently walked over to the box. It had a piece of paper taped on the top of it, her name was also drawn in crayon.

Hanna peeled off the paper slowly, half the tape wasn't sticking to the box anyway. Once she opened the box she seen a drawn portrait of two girls.

The drawing was of her and Courtney.

The picture was poorly drawn but she could tell who it was. Hanna was a bit chubby when she was younger, the drawing flashed back the memories. The girls never really cared about Hanna's weight, except Alison.

She'd always comment on Hanna's weight whenever they were eating or going to places like the beach or pool. Hanna started to not eat around the other girls because of her insecurities but Courtney noticed.

Courtney tried her best to make Hanna feel pretty, most of the times when they had sleepovers Courtney would have to sneak out just so Alison wouldn't go with her. Courtney loved her sister but she knew that there was a tension building between her sister and the girls.

Some nights when they were at Hanna's house the two would be the only ones staying up. Courtney would spend half the night talking about anything with Hanna.

When Hanna was with Courtney she felt so normal. She felt like a person.

The night Courtney drew that picture she commented on how she thought Hanna was losing weight. Hanna told her that she had been exercising. But the truth was, she was following instructions from Alison.

Instructions that made her lose weight unhealthily.

"What is it?" Ashley asked her daughter.

Hanna held the picture in both hands, she remembered what Courtney had told her that night. She told Hanna that she is beautiful no matter what she weighs. Granted, that wasn't enough to stop Hanna from her bad habit but as she held the picture in her hands she felt her heart warm up with a sense of happiness.

But then she frowned.

Courtney kept the picture promising Hanna she'd get a frame for it.

But that was just a few weeks before Courtney disappeared…

"Do you know who dropped this off?" Hanna asked suddenly, ignoring the first question her mother asked.

Ashley shook her head, "it was at the doorstep when I got home."

Hanna sat the picture down in the box, she carried the box to her room. She set it on the floor in her closet and shut the door.

She slid down on the closet, she glanced toward the little couch she had in her room. She got up quickly to see a decorated picture frame.

The picture frame had little flowers around it, Hanna felt a sudden breeze brush past her and she turned to her one of her windows that was wide open.

Hanna closed it with confusion, she still held the picture frame in her hand but wasn't sure what to do. Then, she gets a text from Mona.

**_M_**: _Hey! Sorry I wasn't at school today, family issues… Anyway I'm free right now, wanna come over?_

Hanna sighed, she texted back a 'yeah' and walked over to her closet again, she dropped the picture frame in the box and made her way downstairs.

...

Emily had no idea why she was here.

She needed to run. And she did, but oddly her feet brought her there.

The very same place she never wanted to be again.

There was this guilt eating at her, she knew there wasn't just some crazy coincidence that her boyfriend died after what he tried to do with her. She thought about the last time she saw him, she thought about that locker slamming shut, and how Maya came in afterwards.

She spent the entire afternoon with Maya and she was almost one hundred percent positive no one else was in that locker room. Ben would've saw someone right? Was someone really that good at hiding that Ben missed it?

Emily's mind clogged up with all these theories, but only one became her real focus.

_Sara_.

"Em?"

Emily was startled by a voice coming up behind her.

Alison was wearing her night clothes with a messy bun on the top of her head.

"Ali… W-What are you doing here?" Emily questioned.

"I could ask the same thing." Alison cocked an eyebrow, "but I'm going back to the house."

"Alone?" Emily whispered, she couldn't imagine going to that house by herself, that place had spooked her nearly to death already.

"Yes." Alison nodded, "I go sometimes." She added, she awkwardly looked around, not sure of what to say.

Emily cleared her throat, "yeah… Okay… Well I'm going to go… See you later?"

Alison then stared at Emily, she could see dark circles around the girls eyes. "I'm sorry." She says.

Emily gives her a confused look.

"About Ben." Alison said.

Emily sighed, "oh… Thanks."

"It's horrible what happened to him." Alison replied, she walked closer to Emily. "I'm sure you're relieved though."

"Excuse me?" Emily crossed her arms.

"He's gone now Em, no need to pretend that he didn't try to hurt you."

Emily furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Anyway." Alison took a few steps past her. "I should get going. See you around?"

She didn't want for Emily's reply and had already disappeared into the darkness of the woods.

Emily took a step forward to follow Alison, but the fear of that house stopped her. She couldn't do it. She let out a sigh and turned around, she walked herself back home.

Alison on the other hand made it to the house.

She opened the door casually and plopped down on the couch.

She took out her phone, she had received a message that confused her.

She wasn't sure who it was from but she wanted to desperately forget it. She skipped the school day and made a few errands. She went back to the woods a few times to enjoy the quietness of it. Unlike the other girls she felt safe here. She felt protected.

"Someone's being an ass again." She commented while staring at the message. "I mean, I know I can be an asshole myself but come on." She flipped over to her stomach.

_"I know what you did. And you won't get away with it."_

Alison chuckled, "idiots."

The house was still silent. Alison sighed, she turned off her phone to sit in the darkness. "You know, I hated Ben too but you didn't have to do that."

Silence.

"He's a boy with raging hormones. I can't blame him." Alison mumbled.

"_Emily…_"

The voice replied in a whisper.

Alison fiddled with her phone. "You made her upset again." Alison replied, "I thought you promised."

"_He… Hurt_."

Alison turned on her phone again. "I'll let this go this time alright?" She got no response but continued. "You can't scare them away."

Alison flipped over to her back again, "they miss you."

"Me?"

"I know they're all hurting. But you and I could make it right again." Alison let herself smile.

"_Make… It… Right?"_

"Yes!" Alison sat up, "If they see you they wouldn't be fraid anymore." She went on, "they'll see you as their best friend again and everything will be fine… Almost as good as new!"

Alison wasn't sure who she was trying to convince at this point. But she liked the idea of everyone else happy. Even if that meant she had to be the odd one out again.

_"See me_?"

Alison nodded, she took out a lighter to create small light, she gently smiled at the small flame.

"They'll be happy."

...

**_a/n sorry if there are any mistakes i missed, hope you enjoy this chapter_**


	5. A Jealous Ali

"This is way better than Ms. Walker's class."

Emily giggled in the bathroom stall, she took the joint from Maya's fingers to take in the toxins.

Maya smirked.

"Anything is better than Ms. Walker's class." She replied.

Emily grinned as she passed the joint back to Maya, "I have an offer for you."

Maya cocked an eyebrow.

"You should come over tonight. My mom's making dinner and it gets so lonely with just the two of us." Emily gave Maya her best puppy dog eyes.

The truth is, Emily was lonely.

She had her teammates and Maya but Maya's the new kid. Before her, Emily's only friends were the people she was practically forced to be nice to, they were a team after all.

And her only friends besides them would've been Alison and the other girls. She did nearly everything with them. She did have someone else though, she had _Toby Cavanaugh_.

Toby was probably the only guy she spent time with at the time. No she didn't have a crush on him or anything, he was a really good friend.

But even he was taken from her.

And now Maya filled in his place.

"I would love to, but I have a strong feeling your mom doesn't like me." Maya replied.

Emily chuckled, she opened the stall to freshen up a little when she jumped.

"Holy shit!" She placed a hand over her heart.

"So this is what you do." Alison was leaning against another stall, her arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked. Maya took a few steps out of the stall, she had flushed the joint at the sound of Alison's voice.

"I was wondering the same thing for you." Alison glares toward Maya who walked over to the sinks. "But I found the reason."

Emily chuckled awkwardly, "well… Uh we were just talking."

"Sure." Alison let out a sigh, "I thought you knew better than this."

"What are you? her mom?" Maya snickered.

Emily glanced over to Maya silently telling her to stop. Maya clears her throat, she turns back to the sink to splash water on her face.

"I'm just messing around Ali, nothing to be worried about." Emily said.

Alison kept her eyes on Maya, sending her daggers. "She's going to get you in trouble, Em."

Before Emily could disagree a voice on the intercom called out.

"_Emily Fields to the principal's office. Emily Fields."_

Emily groaned, "fuck." She rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag. Before she left, she gave a quick hug to Maya and quickly passed Alison.

Alison watched her go, and then it was just her and Maya. "You should be careful with her."

Maya cocked her eyebrow, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying." Alison paused, she pushed herself off the stall. "If you do anything such as hurt her, get her… Addicted to that shit or even ruin her chances at being a swimm-"

Maya laughed, "get her Addicted? Are you serious? It's just weed."

Alison rolled her eyes, "I don't care. I'm saying whatever you do that so much as upsets Emily you'll have to deal with me."

"Can you calm down please?" Maya smirked, "you don't need to act like a jealous girlfriend."

"What?" Alison scoffed, "I'm not acting like that. She's my friend."

"You don't think I notice you glaring at me everytime I'm around her?" Maya asked, "plus if you were really her friend you'd I don't know… Actually try to be there for her."

"Excuse me?" Alison furrowed her eyebrows.

"She's obviously going through something. I noticed it the first time I met her and I don't know what it is but hey, if a little weed can make her smile then what's so bad with that?" Maya explained.

Alison stayed quiet for a minute.

Maya placed her hand under Alison's shoulder, she held it for a few seconds. She held a smirk on her lips as she continued, "And another thing." She paused, "don't tell me how to treat my friends. At least I actually talk to them."

Alison watched the girl brush passed her, she stood in place for a few seconds. She then walked over to the mirror, she stared at her reflection as she ran the sink water.

"You have no idea what I can do Maya." She mumbled to herself.

...

"So how's Melissa?"

Aria asked. She and Spencer shared last period together after Spencer switched one of her classes. Aria was thankful because she literally had no one else to talk to. They were spending the last thirty minutes catching up, well it was mostly Spencer informing Aria about how's life been for her when Aria was away.

"She's… Okay." Spencer stared at Aria's desk, she was sitting in front of Aria but turned herself around to converse with an old friend.

"That… Sounds good." Aria raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry it's been weird between us." Spencer admitted, "I feel like she's keeping something from me you know? And we always told each other everything, like literally everything!" Spencer sighed, "now she just feels like a stranger."

"I know what you mean." Aria replied, "in a sense we're all keeping Something from each other." Spencer eyes met Aria's as she continued, "I mean, we're not even the same anymore. It all feels… Weird."

"Yeah." Spencer responded, as the conversation died out the bell shouted in the students' ears. Spencer and Aria both stood up, Spencer turns to Aria again but their teacher calls Spencer.

"Spencer, can I have a word with you?" Mr. Reynolds stood at his desk, his eyes never leaving Spencer.

"Uh. Sure." Spencer grabbed Aria's arm as the short girl was on her way out the classroom. "Hey, will you wait for me?" She asked, "we could maybe go to my house and… You know… Hang out." Spencer looks down to her hand on Aria's arm, she slowly pulls it away.

"Yeah! Of course." Aria smiled, "I'll be waiting." She gave her friend a playful wink and the two split.

Aria stood outside the door as she heard Mr. Reynolds voice.

"Spencer, I didn't want to have this conversation with you because I truly believed you were a great student."

Aria frowned.

"What?" Spencer questioned.

"Look, I know what your doing." Mr. Reynolds voice hardened, Aria tried to peer into the room until she held a pair of hands cover her face and someone dragging her away. Something was forced into her mouth and while she was mumbling through the cloth she was stuffed inside a locker.

Aria coughed out the cloth and through the little slits of the locker she saw Noel's stupid smirk.

"Hey Montgomery!" He slammed his hand against the locker door.

"Fuck you!" Aria yelled, she hit her hands against the locker.

"That's no way to talk to anyone Ms. Aria."

She heard a familiar voice, she felt herself die inside at the sound of that voice.

You see, Noel wasn't alone.

"Jenna…" Aria gulped.

"Missed me?" Jenna smirked, "I surely missed you and your dick head of a friend, and by the way. Where's Alison?"

Aria looked down to her feet, this locker was surprisingly almost empty, yet she felt as if the walls were closing in.

"Jenna… Please you know I didn't have anything to do with that." Aria placed her hand on the locker, she stared Jenna in her green orbs as she pleaded.

"Oh, Aria. You're cute." Jenna chuckled, "but you know I begged for something too." She paused, Noel wasn't in Aria's sight but she knew he was just there, with a smirk on his lips. "I begged and begged. But they took him away from me." Her voice was low, hurting.

"Jenna… I'm not the enemy here." Aria replied.

"But you let your friend lie!" Jenna kicked the locker a few times, the sound deafening Aria's ears.

"You let her lie on him." Jenna's breath began to pick up, she kicked and slammed against the locker loudly. "He was a good boy. He was my brother!" Jenna wiped her mouth, she glanced to the side of her, Aria assumed it was Noel who she was looking at.

"I heard about Courtney." She stated, her voice was a lot more calm this time.

"Don't start!" Aria yelled.

"Why not?!" Jenna asked, raising her voice.

"Because she's gone." Aria's voice cracked.

"So is Toby." Jenna let out a whimper.

"No, he's not gone." Aria says, "he's away. He can come back but Courtney can't."

"And why can't she? Did you guys kill her?" Noel snickered with another laugh from someone else.

"Fuck you!" Aria spat.

"I hope you all understand the pain I had to go through." Jenna mumbled, "I hope you all suffer."

She walked away with another boy following after her, Noel stood in front of the locker, still with that annoying smirk on his lips.

"See you tomorrow Aria."

"Wait!" Aria heard him laugh as he walked away. "No! Fuck!" Aria tried kicking at the locker but no luck. She began hitting wilding at the locker hurting her hands as she struggled to breathe. "Help!" She cried.

…

_Flashback_

_"Seriously Han? You must have a pretty big imagine if you think you can fit that." Alison grimaced._

_Hanna held the top over her chest, she sighed and dropped the shirt on the bed. She plopped down on the bed beside Emily._

_It was a usual sleepover. But unfortunately for Hanna, Courtney and Alison's parents were out of town, so they were staying over at Hanna's for the next few days._

_"She doesn't mean that Han." Courtney nodged Alison on the shoulder, but her twin rolled her eyes in response._

_"Aria, you should try this on." Spencer came out of Hanna's closet with an outfit. Aria happily takes the outfit._

_"It looks good." Aria grinned._

_Alison scoffed._

_"Jesus Spence, your taste is worse than Hanna's weight gain." The blonde stood up, "Aria you look terrible, you've must've been dropped on your head as a baby if you think this looks good."_

_Before Courtney could defend her sister Spencer turned to her. "Okay asshole no one asked you."_

_Alison took a few steps back, "don't get all hulk on me now. I'm being honest." She shrugged._

_"God, I can't even deal with you." Spencer took Aria into the closet to try on some other outfits._

_"Alison." Courtney sighed._

_"What? It's not my fault they get offended." Alison sat back on the bed, Hanna stands up and walks over to the door._

_"I'm going to the kitchen to get a drink, you guys want anything?" The girls shook their heads except Emily._

_"I'd like a water please."_

_Hanna nods and disappears out the room. Aria and Spencer came back only wearing their under clothing, they held a handful of clothes and sat them on the bed. Let's just say that when Melissa shops, she really shops._

_Trying out clothes was one of the favorite activities the girls would love to do. They'd pretend to be anyone or anything. Of course they've only ever had Alison around a few times, and of course they mostly dreaded it._

_Emily didn't mind so much, Alison would never actually insult the girl. Emily had thought maybe it was because she was sensitive, but really it was a little more than that._

_"Emily, I got you this." Spencer grinned as she pulled out a bathing suit._

_Emily held it up, "a two piece?"_

_Spencer nodded, "don't just look at it! Try it on." She turns to Aria, "and try this." She gives her another outfit and glanced toward Alison, hoping she didn't have anymore to say about Aria. But Alison's eyes were on someone else._

_They were on Emily._

_Emily was stripping down to wear her bathing suit, Spencer thought that Alison was trying to come up with a round of insults for Emily but she also realized she had never said anything to hurt Emily. Sometimes Spencer was jealous of that._

_"I'm more of a one piece girl." Emily said after she wore the bathing suit._

_"You got to show your body." Aria giggled, "for the pool party remember?"_

_"And Toby." Spencer smirked._

_Emily couldn't hide her smile, she was amused at the thought of her and Toby being together._

_"That's what this is about?" Emily chuckled, she sat down on the bed again and looked over to Alison who had been already staring at her._

_"Of course!" Spencer replied, "he's like the only boy you talk to."_

_"My mom can be very judgemental of any person that's not you guys." Emily replied._

_"Yeah but you go to his house." Aria wiggled her eyebrows._

_"To be fair I tell my mom I'm hanging out with Jenna." Emily shrugged, "plus Toby and I are friends."_

_"Right." Spencer smirked knowingly._

_Hanna came back suddenly looking worse than she had been before, she handed Emily a water bottle and laid in the bed._

_Alison ignored her though._

_"You shouldn't like Toby." Alison says, mostly to Emily than anyone else._

_"Well I have to like him because he's my friend." Emily reasoned._

_Alison took a minute to respond, but once she did it was something none of the girls were expecting._ _Let's just say, a jealous Alison is a dangerous Alison._

_"I don't think he'd be your friend if you found out what he did to me…" Alison dropped her eyes on the bed, playing the victim card perfectly._

_After that night, Toby Cavanaugh would be taken away. He'd be sent to a camp that would better him._

_He would be snatched away from his beloved sister, Jenna._

_After that day…_

_They created another enemy._

…

**_Present_**

The memories flushed back to Aria's mind as she cried in the locker. "Help! Help!" She cried while hitting the locker. She couldn't breathe, she started to whimper trying her best to catch her breath. Being trapped in the locker made her feel like she had been there before, and no not stuffed in her locker but stuck somewhere else.

"Help." She whispered through her tears.

She thought closing her eyes would help but in reality it had it worse.

That thing in that house, she saw it again. It was like it was creeping up to her. She shook her head almost violently, she started to shout again while going ballistic inside the locker.

"Aria? Oh my god."

She heard Spencer ran toward the locker, she opens it quickly to catch Aria falling into her arms.

Aria clung to Spencer, "Hey, hey it's okay." Spencer held Aria tightly. "I got you." She mumbled as Aria sniffed.

"Jenna… And-And Noel p-put me-"

Spencer hissed, "of course it was her."

"She's still… M-mad about-"

"I know, I know." Spencer helped Aria stand straight, "we can't do anything about that now okay?"

"But…"

"No, Aria." Spencer placed her hands around Aria's face. "What happened wasn't our fault. She'll take her anger out on us for something Ali did. And I'm going to get back at her." Spencer pulls her hands away and started walking down the hall, Aria followed.

"She can't be far." Spencer said, but Aria pulled on her shirt.

"Let's just leave it." She sniffed, "I'm okay now…"

Spencer frowned, she looked toward the ground for a few seconds. "Fine." She sighed, "but if she does something else I'm going to kill her."

Aria nodded quietly.

Spencer pulled her in a hug, "let's go home now."

…

"Thanks for walking me home Han." Emily smiled.

Hanna shrugged, "no problem. My only friend is now brushing me off so I literally have no one else."

"You know you always have me." Emily replied, Hanna looked up to meet her eyes and smiled. Emily was right, Hanna did still have a friend in her. "Plus Maya isn't answering my texts so I'm alone too."

"Oh! So I'm your second choice?" Hanna jokes.

"Well aren't I yours?" Emily smirked, she nudged Hanna playfully when a car comes driving by, it slowed down after passing the girls.

"Well, well, well." Jenna rolled down her car window, a guy Emily seen before was the driver. "Look who it is Nate, Hanna and Emily."

Emily avoided looking at the car, she kept walking with her head down. Hanna did the same as they picked up their steps.

"Oh what? No hi or fuck off." Jenna chuckled, "I heard a lot of that from your friend back at school." Hanna and Emily shared a confused look, but didn't say a word.

"You know, it's not polite to ignore your fellow peers." Jenna sent daggers with her eyes at the two.

"What do you want?" Hanna hissed.

"I just wanted to say hi." Jenna shrugged in her seat, ''remind you all what a piece of shit you are." She added with a harsh tone.

"I mean, I thought you were his friend Emily."

Emily shut her eyes as she sped up her pace, Hanna kept up while whispering. "Ignore her."

"I heard about Courtney." Jenna added, "I'm sure everyone did at this point." She chuckled softly, "it's such a shame what happened to her."

"Jenna, piss off." Hanna mumbled.

"It sucks doesn't it?" Jenna asked, "but it's like karma in a way. You take my brother I take Courtney."

"Seriously?" Emily stopped, "she's dead for Christ Sake have some respect."

"She's dead?" Jenna questioned, "and you know that for sure?"

Emily slowly looks to Hanna who steps in.

"We just assumed." Hanna cleared her throat.

Jenna nods, "right, right." She paused for a minute until she continued. "I wouldn't be surprised if you all had something to do with it."

Emily knitted her eyebrows together. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I could tell she was guilty." Jenna replied, "she was the better twin afterall."

"Jenna what do you want from us?" Emily asked, she was desperate for this interaction to end. "Do you want some kind of apology?"

Jenna snickered, "fuck any apology you'd have. You can't give my brother back to me."

"Jen, we gotta wrap this up." Nate says.

Jenna rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever." She turns back to the girls. "I hope you never find a day of peace." She rolled up her window and the car started to drive off.

Emily let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in.

"Great. Now my day's officially ruined." Hanna murmured as Emily started to walk off.

Jenna, on the other hand, was staring at the window, believe it or not she actually felt mournful for Courtney. As she mentioned before Courtney was in fact the better twin by almost everyone's standards. She simply wasn't an asshole to people, Courtney would usually always have to apologise for what her sister had said or did.

But an apology wouldn't make Jenna feel better, seeing her brother would.

"You okay?" Nate asked.

After the whole Toby thing Jenna was homeschooled. And that also meant she spend a lot of time at home, she didn't bother to leave the house.

After what Alison told her parents travelled to Jenna's, her parents didn't want to believe Toby was innocent.

Toby was her step brother, and Jenna's father grew dangerously protective of her and sent Toby away. To him, Toby was a weird kid who'd probably do what Alison accused him of. He wasn't blood so maybe that's what made it easier. But Jenna loved Toby, he was her best friend.

Nate and Noel were friends of Toby, not like best friends or anything but occasionally they'd talk from time to time. But still, Toby was considered the 'weird' kid and many, many people believed the lie Alison told.

They believed her brother was a monster.

"I'm fine." Jenna replied, she didn't bother to take her eyes off the window. She placed her palm on the glass and sighed.

"Don't worry Jen." Nate smiled, "we have all year with them. We'll get back at them."

Jenna closed her eyes, "and what if it isn't enough?"

Nate glanced toward Jenna, "Well… We'll just-"

Suddenly he jerked the steering wheel causing Jenna to hit her hip against the driver's armrest. The car spins wildly for a second before finally stopping on the side of the road.

"What the fuck?" Jenna opened her car door to step out.

Nate was still panting in the driver's seat, "I saw… I saw a car."

"Well I see nothing!" Jenna yelled, she held her side. "Fuck." She groaned.

Nate was staring out his window, looking for any sign of a car. He knew he saw it…

He suddenly heard whispers all around him, panicked he yelled for Jenna to get back in. She hesitantly followed his order but was still on edge from almost getting into an accident.

He started the car but looked out his rearview mirror.

There was a girl staring back at him.

…

A few days after that the girls were all at lunch, they weren't all sitting together except Aria and Spencer. The two were regaining the special bond they once had and it was a huge relief for Aria.

Hanna was sitting with Mona but something was different about her. She seemed distracted. Hanna had been hanging around Emily more because of this too, it just felt different. It felt weird to see her closest friend disappear right in front of her. But then again, it wouldn't be the first time.

Emily had been sitting with her teammates, it's been days since she heard from Maya and her parents wouldn't answer Emily's calls. Emily has visited the house too and yet no one was home.

But Alison has been around a lot more lately, it was nice for Emily to actually talk to the blonde and not over text. Still though, something felt off.

"Alison Dilaurentis, Emily Fields, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery and Spencer Hastings can you please come to the front office."

The girls all caught each other's eyes as they stood up, Alison was the first to walk out of the cafeteria with Emily and soon the others followed.

Once they made it to the office they were met with their parents who held troubling facial expressions.

"What's going on?" Spencer asked.

"Girls." Veronica called, the other parents all shared looks with each other. Veronica sighed.

"There's something we need to tell you."


	6. See Me?

The girls had never felt more anxious, after seeing their parents in the office they all drove over to Spencer's house, the parents told their girls to sit and then they started to whisper something none of the girls could hear. Spencer saw her sister was also there, but she in the kitchen looking back at the girls who just arrived.

"So. I'm not sure if any of you are aware of this, but a student by the name of Maya Germain was reported missing." Emily's mother states, she watched her daughter's expression which doesn't really change, she just sat there looking at the ground. Pam sighed, "There's a running investigation due to a witness seeing Maya last, that's about all I can tell you but there will be some officers maybe wanting to talk with you all. Especially you, Emily."

Emily finally met eyes with her mother, she let out a nervous breath. She stayed quiet.

Everyone seemed troubled, except Alison. Jessica watched how her daughter kept fiddling with her nails as if she were bored, sometimes she was afraid of what her daughter could do.

Before Courtney went missing there was an issue Jessica could see in Alison. The girl was hell as a child and once she started to grow up she calmed down, but she was a lot more secretive. Jessica liked the idea that she didn't know everything that Alison was doing but at the same time it worried her because, Alison could be doing _anything_.

"We thought we'd let you know before the news broke out about it." Ashley spoke, she also watched her daughter's expression which was something on the lines of confused, and maybe a bit of fear. "We thought that maybe… It could be trigger." She added.

The girls stayed silent, Maya was now on the list of people who were getting hurt, or dying. Or you know, dead.

First it was their teacher, then Ben and now Maya.

"There's also some news about Courtney." Veronica says, "there was something found near a lake in the woods, something that belonged to Courtney. A bracelet."

"But that doesn't really mean anything." Spencer replied, it probably came out a lot harsher than she intended and by the look of her mother she cleared her throat nervously. "I-i mean she could've lost it or something before she went missing… I doubt they'd find her."

Her mother raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What do you mean by that?"

Spencer froze, the house in the woods was nowhere near a lake. Spencer and the girls passed it once on their trail to the house, but why would Courtney's belonging be there? Afterall, Courtney did have it that night they were going to the house but she definitely hadn't came back to that trail after that night…

She looked at the other girls and she shared a look with each of them. She then shrugs, "I don't know." She leans herself back on the couch.

"Spencer." Alison's mother called out, "is there something you know? Any… Information regarding my daughter?" Jessica asked, Spencer shook her head silently.

"Are you-" Jessica was cut off by Spencer's mother.

"She doesn't know anything." Even Veronica's words didn't sound believable, but she turned to the girls. "Since it's the weekend we thought we'd have a little gathering this afternoon, since you girls are already here you can go to Spencer's room or to the barn while the guys start a barbecue yeah?" Veronica looked around at everyone for confirmation. Once everyone pretty much ok'd the idea they all split off.

After the men and kids left, the mothers all stood around the kitchen with a drink in hand.

"How's Aria?" Veronica asked, "I know she's been _gone _for a while. Is she adjusting well?"

"I think so?" Ella replied back, "I just want this to all be over... The sleepless nights, the fear."

"The secrets." Jessica mumbled. She was facing away from the other mothers holding her glass a little too tightly in her hand.

"Yeah... That too." Ella agreed quietly.

"I'm sorry so Jess." Pam sighed, "I know we haven't lost our girls the way you did but believe me it feels like our girls aren't the same anymore."

"Don't you think it's strange none of them knows nothing yet it's obvious they were with her that night." Jessica sat her glass down and wiped her face, she was exhausted and dejected by the loss of her daughter. "They have to know something."

"I've tried getting an answer out of Hanna that night." Ashley admitted, "but she looked so haunted and wouldn't speak a word."

"Same with Aria." Ella added. "And ever since... She started having violent episodes."

"Spencer had a different look in her eyes." Veronica replied, "After that night she became more angry. I placed her in counseling. And now I'm not sure if she's better."

"Emily told me she was really tired that night. I couldn't get an question out of her no matter how hard i tried." Pam adds, "She passed out once. She had stopped eating and was dehydrated."

"Alison was more secretive after that night. But i noticed the change in her eyes. I know she's a dangerous kid." Jessica replied, "but that night she became something... Else." Her eyes began to tear up.

As the mothers go comfort Jessica, Veronica took a sip of her wine.

"They're guilty." She says.

* * *

The girls agreed to go out to the barn, they haven't been in there for a while now. Not even Spencer went inside after the Courtney incident. The barn was like a favorite place for the girls to go to, it was spacious and the girls were often left alone when they were in there which lead to some alcohol tasting.

"Man." Hanna spoke first, she walked around the barn running her fingers along the walls. The place wasn't like Hanna's memory at all, literally everything changed.

"Either I've been gone for way too long or something's change here." Emily says, she follows Hanna to observe all the new things that were added.

When they were younger the barn was mostly empty, space for them to do anything their minds imagined. It also had things such as couches, a nice little rug and a coffee table. But now, it looked a little upgraded. The couches were new, the coffee table was different and hell, even the rug changed. There were also bags topping each other in one of the corners.

"Something's changed for sure." Spencer frowned, her little childhood home was only in her memories now. "Something I surely didn't know about." She mumbled.

Was this another one of Melissa's plans? God, Spencer hated not knowing what her sister was up to.

"Do you guys remember…" Alison spoke so quiet that the girls weren't sure if she had said anything at all. "The night Courtney and I-"

Spencer cuts her off, "I think someone's going to be living here now. Probably Melissa, so don't move anything around okay?" The girls silently nodded, Alison bit her lip, she surprisingly stayed quiet and kept her head down.

The girls all sat around the new couches in dreading silence. All of them and their thoughts mixed up with questions and things that had happened recently, Spencer for one wanted to talk about the hoodie.

"Emily.. Um." Hanna sighed, "I'm sorry about Maya. I know she was your friend and all…" Her voice trailed off as she gazed at her lap.

Emily also sighed, "thanks." That was all she was going to say, she didn't want to talk about it. She believed in her heart that Maya was okay… She just wasn't sure her mind thought that.

"Yeah. A lot of things have been happening lately. Ben's death and Ms. Sorenson… Now Maya." Spencer thought of maybe she hinted toward the events that happened maybe the other girls would open up about something as well.

"Yeah. No kidding." Aria replied, "I feel that things are getting… Weirder."

Spencer cocked her eyebrow, "yeah? What makes you say that?"

"I never really noticed until now but lately my windows have always been open." The short girl replied, it's weird because I never opened those things before plus…" She paused, "I found something on my bed the other day." She lowered her voice. "It was a hospital bracelet… I don't remember going to a hospital in like forever!"

The girls all share a look. Aria continued, "it's kinda strange I don't remember much after… The Courtney thing.."

"I found something weird too." Hanna says just above a whisper. "I-I… It was something Courtney made for me but I was sure it was still in her room or something… My mom said it was dropped off at our doorstep." Hanna's eyes met Alison's, "you wouldn't happen to know anything about that right?"

"Of course not." Alison replied, she crossed her arms. "If I knew about whatever that thing was I probably wouldn't give it to you." She admitted with a harsh tone, Hanna rolled her eyes.

"I was dating Ben." Emily announced.

The girls except Alison seemed a little surprised, Hanna only assumed Emily was a friend of his since she was taken out of class the other day.

"He… He tried to um." She cleared her throat, she avoided the eyes of her old friends as she let the words fall out her mouth. "He tried to get intimate with me the last time I saw him… He's been trying for a while but something was… I don't know… With us? Then when I got away he ends up dead."

"Well he deserved it." Alison replied carelessly, "a prick like him needs to be in the ground."

"Jesus Ali." Spencer muttered.

"He didn't deserve to die…" Emily uttered.

"What about you two?" Hanna asked, quickly noticing how guilty Emily must've felt. Hanna knew what that felt like.

Spencer shared a quick glance with Alison, the blonde shrugs. "Nothing happened to me." She immediately thought about the weird text she received the other day, she also got another one that morning… But she ignored it, she thought that maybe if she forgot it they'll stop.

So now it was Spencer's turn, she suddenly stands up and walks away from the girls. They watch her push the new coffee table to the side and remove the rug from is position and then Spencer simply pushes with a little force on a wooden floor board which slides revealing a small hole.

Spencer reaches in to grab a little bag. She pushes the floorboard back to its place while pulling the rug back as well and sat the bag on the rug.

"What the hell?" Emily eyed Spencer.

"That was there the entire time?!" Hanna stared at the spot where the hole was, "oh come on Spencer! We could've hid so much in there!"

"That's not our focus right now Han." Spencer slowly unwraps the item from the bag and the girls all stare at the old dirty hoodie.

Almost in unison the girls gasped.

Aria knew this hoodie, but all her memories started to fog up in her head, she started to get things all mixed up. She reached for the hoodie, it felt a little rough, probably due to how dirty it was.

"Where did you get this?" Alison nearly hissed, she snatched the hoodie from Aria.

"I don't know! Someone gave it to me." Spencer replied, she felt nervous as the other girls looked at her like they were afraid. "Look, it was after Ben died and I couldn't sleep… Then someone knocked on my door, but it was like… How Courtney knocked and I-I opened my door to see that." Spencer pointed to the hoodie, "I saw it and I didn't know what to do with it so the next day I brought it here."

"What does this even mean?" Emily asked, her eyes locked on the hoodie.

"It means…" Hanna paused, "that maybe… Someone's messing with us... They're practically hinting that Courtney's really gone."

"Are you seriously stupid?!" Alison held a tighter grip on the hoodie as she glared toward Hanna. "Didn't you just say you got something Courtney made for you? That proves that she isn't gone."

"What about the hospital band then? The sudden deaths?!" Spencer asked, she turned to Alison raising her head up high. "What about The fucking hoodie Ali!"

"The hoodie shows us she's okay!The lead our parents told us about shows that she's okay! Court would never leave her bracelet..." Alison yelled, "this-this just means she's… I don't know scared to come back?"

"That doesn't sound like Courtney…" Emily says.

"Like you knew her!" Alison hissed, "I know she's not gone, okay?" Her voice softened after seeing the look on Emily's face.

"You don't have any proof." Spencer spat, "she's gone Ali. And I can't explain why that hoodie was on my doorstep, I also can't explain the things that's been happening but I know for sure that Courtney's dead. We saw her!"

Alison almost grew angrier, "no! You'll see just go back to the woods with me and I'll sho-"

Spencer quickly walked closer to Alison, "you'll show us that fucking monster that took her away." Her voice was low and almost threatening. She pushed Alison back a little, making her drop the hoodie. Alison wouldn't admit this but she felt a little intimidated.

"She's gone Ali." Spencer spoke louder, "s-she's gone." Her voice betrayed her as she stuttered. She took in a deep breath, Alison shook her head furiously and brushed passed Spencer.

The girls watched Alison open the barn doors where a certain face stood there.

"Melissa." Spencer called out, Melissa was carrying a few blankets in her arms and looked a little overwhelmed. Her eyes were now looking at a teary eyed Alison.

Alison quickly pushed passed Melissa and disappeared out of sight. The girls walked over to help Melissa carry the blankets inside.

"Is she… Okay?" Melissa asked, glancing behind her to see if maybe Alison would come back.

Spencer shrugged, "she's fine." She had a certain cold look in her eyes that Melissa didn't like.

"I'm going to check on her, okay?" The older Hasting announced to the girls and followed Alison. Well, tried to anyway. Once she saw Alison walking off from the house she gave up. Deep down in her mind she didn't want to involve herself in whatever mess Spencer and her friends were in, but that look in Spencer's eyes made her wonder what Alison had did…

From what she heard from standing by the barn doors made her wonder what they all did…

She turned back to her own house, she knew that the fear that built up was only going to grow more if she won't do anything about it. She wanted to believe that her sister was still the good girl she'd always go shopping with.

She wanted to believe Spencer was innocent.

* * *

That night Spencer thought she wouldn't see Ali anymore after that argument. After the fight Alison's parents went after her and they didn't come back either, Melissa also told the girls that Alison just wanted space and the little cookout continued on As if nothing happened.

After eating the girls went back to the barn, with Melissa's presence being there made things were a little awkward. Spencer had already put the hoodie back in its place before they ate so that small issue was gone. Melissa also tried to play nice and ask about the argument. But luckily Spencer made up something on the spot and the other girls agreed to it.

After a while each girl called it a night and went to bed. Emily and Hanna were sleeping on the biggest couch as Melissa took the other one, Aria and Spencer only had the covers and floor as their bed and it wasn't so bad.

Spencer did notice how Aria had tried to fight her sleep though, she wasn't sure if she was trying to stay up for Spencer or if it were something else. Either way, she still fell asleep. Then Spencer was the last.

She wasn't really sure what she was dreaming about but all she knew was something interrupted it.

A series of giggles were practically bouncing off the walls and Spencer groaned. She opened her eyes to be met with a light exposing the barn. Spencer noticed it was light coming from outside, she wanted nothing more than to sleep but something kept her awake.

"_Spence_?"

She quickly rolled over to her back to see a silhouette of a blonde girl leaning on one of the barn doors, her arms crossed.

"Ali?" Spencer yawned.

Ali didn't reply at first, and the longer Spencer's eyes adjust she noticed something was off about Ali. The girl wore only a plain white T-shirt that held dirt stains all over. She also wore a skirt that ran down her legs and only stopped a few inches under her knees.

Then Spencer squinted her eyes to make sure what she was seeing were true.

The girl had this ghostly figure about her, it was almost haunting. She smiled.

"_You see me?_" She asked in a whisper.

Spencer jumped up from her stomach, she stayed on her knees debating if she should wake Aria up.

Before she could decide the girl goes running off. Spencer looked around at the other girls to see if they were at waking up.

Unfortunately, no one was.

Spencer sighed. She then saw the coffee table pushed a little too far off the rug. Spencer quickly crawls to the rug and pulls it back, the floorboard was pushed back and Spencer knew that someone took her hoodie.

It had to be Alison.

Spencer mutters a few curses and stood up, she speed walked out the barn to see that her back door was open. She walked into her house to silence. The parents decided to stay after they all ate but they left soon after. Spencer looked over all the glass cups still sitting around on the kitchen counter.

Ignoring that, she saw her front door wide open. She made her way to her front door to see a little blonde walking further away.

"No." Spencer closed the door and ran after the blonde. She ran close enough to call out to the blonde.

Alison whips her head back with a feared look on her face. And Spencer's eyes fell on her hoodie that Alison clutched tightly to her chest.

"W-what?" Alison asked she tensed a bit.

"Where are you going with my hoodie?" Spencer asked, Alison glares at her.

"This is her hoodie, and I'm taking it back." Alison turned around to walk away from Spencer, but the taller girl grabs Alison's shoulder pulling her back.

"No! It's mine." She replied.

"Why do you need it?" Alison asks, she steps closer to Spencer as to size her up.

"Because like I said… It's mine." Spencer's voice cracked out of nowhere, oddly she felt herself getting emotional.

"That's not the only reason." Alison whispered. She could read Spencer by just looking in her eyes, she could always read the girl. And yet, the two would always argue.

"Just give it back okay?" Spencer tried reaching for it but Alison hides it behind her back. "Ali!" Spencer called out, she crossed her arms.

"Tell me why you need it Spencer." Alison's voice was stern.

"Because…" Spencer sighed, "because it's fucking mine."

"No." Alison shook her head, "that's not a good enough reason."

"And why do you need it?"

"Because it's my sister's. You know, the one that's missing."

Spencer sucked her teeth, "Ali. You have her room. You have her old clothes, you have her all the things she used to have. Why can't I have something?" Spencer yelled, she felt a single tear leave her eyes but she quickly wiped it away.

Truth was, she was hurting.

More than she let on.

Spencer reached her hand out, "having that could get us in trouble and you know how the situation looks." She sniffed, "so please… Just give it back."

Alison hesitantly took the hoodie from her back, she stared at it for a second.

"I remember how excited she was." Alison paused. "She was so happy about that fucking house but once she seen this thing she had to have it." Alison smiled.

"The first time you two took me to the house I dropped it. I thought I'd never find it again but Courtney was determined." Spencer replied softly.

"And she found it." Alison cried.

"I… I'm sorry." Alison quickly wiped her tears away. She hands the hoodie back to Spencer, "I can get selfish with her things…"

Spencer simply nods. The two stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Are you going to clean it?" Alison questioned.

Spencer shrugs, "I'm not sure… I don't want too."

Alison nods, "well… I hope you… Enjoy it." Alison scratched the back of her neck, "I should get going."

"Where?"

Alison turned her back to Spencer, "you don't have to pretend to care." She chuckled lightly to herself.

"Ali." Spencer took a few steps after her, "if your going back to the house… Be careful okay?"

Alison stares at Spencer for a minute, wondering if the girl was being genuine. Alison gave her a half smile and continued to walk out of Spencer's yard.

They had their issues. They had their fights but Spencer could never wish any ill intention toward the girl. Yeah, she hated how Alison treated people including herself, but just like the other girls, she had a soft spot for the blonde. And it wasn't just because Alison lost Courtney. They all did. But there was something about Alison's character that made Spencer hate her guts but also just wanted to get to care for her.

Spencer concluded a long time ago that Alison was a troubled kid, but the girl did have her sweet moments with them.

Spencer just hoped she could get those sweet moments back.

* * *

A few days after the sleepover Aria had actually started to sleep well. Yes, it surprised her too. She even skipped school and claimed that she was sick but she was just happy to get more sleep. She cuddled up to her covers letting sleep take her mind yet again.

She didn't know how long she was asleep for but when she woke up, she heard a laugh that was oddly close to her.

"_Wake up sleepy head."_

Aria rubbed her eyes tiredly. She let out a big yawn and stretched her limbs, only when she heard another laugh is where she nearly jumped out of bed. The laugh came from one of her windows, they were covered but she swore she saw a person's shadow just sittting there.

Aria felt her heart drop to her stomach, she wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not but her feet were curious and took a few steps to her window. Once she was close enough she heard singing, but in a whisper like tone.

"_You see me?_"

Aria quickly pulled up the curtain to see nothing.

Something was weird, besides the whole Shadow whispering thing. Her window was cracked, it was as if someone punched the window.

A knock at Aria's door startles her to close the certain.

"Aria? Are you awake?" Her mother's soft voice asked.

Aria jumps back to bed, she covers herself with her blanket and lets out a breath. "Yes!" She replied to her mother, Ella comes in with a bowl in her hand.

"I made you this, hope you feel better."

Aria reached out for the bowl, she smiles gratefully at her mother. "Thank you."

* * *

While Aria was consuming her hot soup, Hanna was too busy being consumed by her thoughts. It also didn't help that her friend seemed troubled as well. Hanna finds herself in a weird cycle when it came to friends, she'd first gain them and they have fun for a while, then they grow distant and suddenly she's all alone.

Being around Mona felt like the time after the Courtney situation. Her friends weren't really friends anymore and then they drifted apart. She didn't want to lose Mona the same way she lost her old friends. But at the same time she didn't know what to do.

"Hanna?" Mona called out for the fifth time, the blonde shook her head a little to focus on the girl.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You okay?" Mona asked.

"I could ask the same for you." Hanna replied.

"Well, I wasn't the one just spacing out." She cracked a smile but it faded once Hanna didn't bother to fake a smile. "Okay. What's wrong?"

"What's happening to us?" Hanna asked. She kept her eyes on the plate of food in front of her. After school Hanna and Mona would sometimes get some food. But to Hanna something seemed so different.

"I don't get what you mean." Mona says, she took a bite out of her burger.

"You're distant."

Mona sighed, "I'm just having family problems. I'm sorry, really." She placed her hand on top of Hanna's. "It'll all blow over soon and before you know it, we're going to be close again. It's just a bump in the road for me right now. I'm sure you understand after… Courtney."

Hanna felt herself tense, "yeah." She uttered. She avoided eye contact and started to observe anyone around them. The people around her seemed so happy. How she used to look.

But then something weird happened.

She saw someone who looked a little out of place.

A girl with this ghostly figure.

Her back was facing Hanna but by how dirty her clothes were made Hanna worry. Hanna glanced at Mona to see the girl enjoying her lunch. Hanna stood up when the little girl slowly turned around, stopping Hanna in her tracks.

Mona looked up at Hanna as well, confused.

"_See me?"_

That voice filled her ears as the little girl giggled and turned away from Hanna, disappearing behind a sudden crowd of people. Hanna looked down at Mona who was also looking in the same direction of where the ghost girl was standing. Did Mona see it too?

"I… I have to go." Hanna slung her over her shoulder.

She left without saying another word to Mona.

* * *

Emily went straight home after school.

Luckily for her there wasn't a practice considering the recent deaths and in all honesty, Emily was grateful for that. But without practice, her mind was free to wander. And it wandered straight to Maya.

Emily's mind couldn't go far from thinking about the girl. The two were getting along so well, maybe it was too good to be true.

Everything reminded Emily of Maya. Anything that was either her mother accidentally burning dinner or simply slipping in the shower made her want to tell Maya about it. She could stare at a wall and have an urge to tell Maya how bored she was.

Alison was also there for her too though, But Maya was different. Her carefree attitude was very pleasing to Emily. It's like Maya was this adventurous girl that had Emily wrapped around her finger. It didn't help that Maya also had a kind heart, even if she pretended not to care.

Emily didn't know when she had started crying but she stopped her jogging in her room as she saw the tears leaving her face. She fell to her knees and let out a few sobs.

It took a good few minutes for her to tire herself out from crying. She felt so paralyzed that she couldn't even wipe her runny nose. She took a few breaths hoping her eyes would stop pooling with tears so that she could continue her exercise.

Emily wasn't good with loss. But who is?

She'd sometimes overwork herself with countless exercises to keep her mind focused on something that wouldn't make her upset. But like today, she couldn't always keep her mind busy.

"_Don't cry Em."_

Emily perked herself up to see that her room door was now slightly ajar. She was sure she had fully closed it before her jog.

She stared at the door as it slowly creaked opened more, she slowly crawled back from the door.

"_Everything will be fine when you see me."_

Emily heard someone running away from her door. Emily crawled over to her door to shut it. After a few silent minutes she placed her ear to the door to hear more footsteps walking around.

The voice started to hum a melody. That humming was far, it sounded as if it came from her parent's room. Emily eyed around her room for any kind of weapon, but all she could find is a pair of heels she wasn't even aware she had.

She placed her ear to the door again and heard the low humming. Emily shut her eyes and counted to three.

She ran out her room with her heel held up high ready to impale anyone.

But no one was there.

She heard heavy steps running down her stairs. And she quickly ran down the stairs to follow.

Once she got down the stairs she saw that her front door was wide open. She walked out the door and looked around at her front yard. She was about to shut her door when someone caught her eye.

Across the street was a dirty girl with her back facing Emily. Emily watched the little girl slowly turn around and her heart nearly stopped.

"_See me?_" The girl giggled.


End file.
